Month: April 2014

Visnja sends her siren song, inviting us to join her and Stanko for coffee on a beautiful day in Sydney, Australia. Danica’s cousin is serenading us with Mozart and looking gorgeous as as a yoga instructor (which she is).
So you see, we have even more reason than most Canadians to regret the collapse of Blackberry. Stanko was working for RIM in Waterloo and he and Visnja were on the brink of becoming Canadians when the layoffs occurred and Stanko relocated to Australia. Our loss, no question.
We are happy, though, that the talented couple seem to love their new Aussie home and Visnja doesn’t miss our winter cold one bit.

Toronto is one of the best cities in the world for Jane’s Walks and there are 136 of them ready to go on Friday, May 2nd, Saturday, May 3rd and Sunday, May 4th.

Yesterday (Monday) was the only sunny day in our short term forecast, so it seemed like an ideal time to head over for some shopping at the Tap Phong Trading Company. I’d been by many times, but not inside. A search for a new wicker basket to carry fireplace logs sent me there.
Bill Byres usually likes to haunt such places so I called him up and we met for lunch at the Free Times Café on College. Bill declared the Mediterranean Omlette good, but added that his own omlettes were better. Probably. Bill is a very good cook.

A fairly good number of Beach Hill residents showed up this sunny morning to help clean up the litter exposed by the melted snow.
I worked my way up Gerrard to Woodbine and then along to north of the Via Rail tracks. We know from experience that there are lots of pickings on that route, don’t we, Thorne?
A survey of my findings:

Rather than seeing nothing but Helen Andersen pieces here, how about if we pause for a look at a watercolour by one of her mentors? The photo doesn’t really do it justice, because it’s much easier to appreciate Kit’s skill, knowledge and dexterity if you can look at the original. Still, I hope you can get a sense of the fluidity, the sense of depth and movement he has created with such seemingly simple means. He knew his colours.

We invited Jane Clapp and her husband Scott over to see which pieces of Helen Andersen art they’d like to have. When she was a little girl, and later when she’d grown up a bit, Jane visited Helen and even did some artwork with her. Jane was one of Helen’s favourite people, so we are delighted that she now has some of Helen’s work. In fact, Jane remembered making paper with Helen, so one of the pieces she chose was a rendering of the CN tower on handmade paper.
Here’s a photo of a very young Jane with Helen, standing in front of a life drawing that still survives. It was among the pictures in the great Ekland Find.

Helen looks on affectionately while Jane steals the show.

With its usual grace and elegance, the TTC will introduce its PRESTO electronic fare system for use on new, giant streetcars it is preparing to deploy. The streetcars are due August 31 but PRESTO cards won’t appear until November 3rd.
For a couple of months at least, riders will use the old tickets, tokens and transfers. A bit of a clumsy launch, but wait, there’s more.
When the PRESTO cards do let us board a new streetcar, we will tap our card at the door to pay, but we’re not finished yet. Inside the car, it will be necessary to tap the card again on a machine that spits out old fashioned paper transfers. We’ll need these as proofs-of-purchase, because special constables will supposedly issue big fines if we can’t produce one on demand. We also need them to transfer to older vehicles that won’t have the PRESTO magic.
The elaborate make-do rituals will drag on into 2015, while the TTC attempts to create a fare-collecting system that works throughout the city. Anyone see potential for comedy ahead?

Open Streets TO would free Bloor Street from car traffic for a few hours on summer Sunday mornings. It’s a good idea that the likes of Mayor Ford despise. So you know it has merit, right?

See you out there!

Within sight of the CN Tower and reachable by streetcar, the Riverdale Farm is one of our city’s treasures. Today was great. May will be even better!

I can’t resist a couple more shots …

With his long, long beard and his empty stare, you’ll understand in a moment …